Grand Chase Chronicles
''Grand Chase: Chronicles ''is an 3D character action-roleplaying game developed by Nightingale Labs in collaboration with Korean developer KoG (Kingdom of God) Studios and published by Sega worldwide and Level Up! Games in Brazil. It is meant to tie-in with the original Grand Chase adventures and retell it for a more modern audience. It will be released for Steam, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in November 2020; the 20th for Asian territories, the 21st for Brazil, and 22nd for worldwide releases (NA, PAL). The game is of a size of 55GB due to its long-length and the use of Dolby Atmos audio and Vision. For PC, the game is also optimized for Nvidia RTX cards to support ray-tracing. The main boxart of this game represents all 19 Grand Chase members (Uno excluded) ready for battle on a space background, with a shadow of Kaze'aze in the background. The boxart holds the record for having the most characters in a an story-driven video game that isn't a crossover or a fighting game. Plot Intro The intro opens with Elscud Sieghart leading a crusade of Kanavan Trackers to the Gorgos cave, having already gotten notations of their target; Kaze'aze. However, upon arriving there, they face an unexpected battle with the Red Gorgos, but partway through the battle, an illusion of Kaze'aze appears, as an response the expedition tries to escape, but is trapped by Kaze'aze's magic. Elscud tries to fight Kaze'aze so they could get away, but Kaze'aze counters with a rift bomb, exploding with the screen fading to white. Chapter 1: Leaving Home News spread across Bermesiah about the disappearance of Elscud and the Kanavan Trackers, however Kaze'aze takes advantage of this and summons a attack to Serdin Kingdom. Serdin calls three talented warriors; Elesis, Lire, and Arme to fight off this threat. Working together, they eventually defeat the threat and move on. Serdin proclaims the force to be known as the Grand Chase. '' Upon arriving at the Gorgos cave, where Sieghart first reportedly witnessed the disappearance of Elesis's father, Elscud, there was no sign of Kaze'aze anywhere. They continue on fighting off the monsters across the Bermesiah continent, eventually recruiting several new Chase members; Ryan the druid who had been corrupted by Kaze'aze's own powers, Lime, who was a Holy Knight from Great Roose who had been accidentally separated from her comrades and eventually got lost in the desert, and Ronan, who is Kanavan's Royal Guard who had been fighting off Gaikoz, one of the major forces possessed by Kaze'aze. After ridding Bermesiah of the monsters, they then continue on down to Silver Land, having gotten information that Kaze'aze's powers have also invaded Silver Land and find out possible whereabouts of Kaze'aze. Chapter 2: A Lost Kingdom The Chase heads down to the Silver Land to continue their journey. They learn about the Silver Knights with a friendly panda named Pan. Pan guides them through Silver Land, and eventually enter the ruins of the Silver Knights territory. There, a fighter named Jin, who then joins the Chase with similar motivations. They explore through various effects of Kaze'aze's dark powers inflicted into Silver Land; monsters being corrupted and even the land changing as well. After fighting through Silver Land and finding clues, they storm Victor's fortress and fight through the Black Knights, having gathered evidence about the entity that destroyed the Silver Knights. Victor claims that the Black Knights had defeated the Silver Knights because he believed that there is no role to competition if they were unable to do anything useful, as if the Silver Knights were too weak to even be matched in the future. The Chase defeats Victor as revenge and then they continue onto Ellia with the ship that they acquired at Silver Land. Chapter 3: Battle for Bermesiah En route to Ellia, an illusion of Kaze'aze sinks the ship, dragging the Chase underwater. Arme uses her water magic to ensure everyone else survives. They enter the Ellia continent and fight through, eventually coming across Elena, who was possessed by Kamiki, a pawn of Kaze'aze, and a friend of Arme as a Violet Mage. Continuing the conquest, they enter Kaze'aze's castle, eventually coming across one of Kaze'aze's possessions; Lass, who had been used to gain powers and upgrade her forces. Elesis demands to Kaze'aze for the whereabouts of Elscud before fighting, but to no luck, Kaze'aze is thought to be dying, but ends up getting away in a dimensional rift. Lass then joins the Chase afterward. Using an old map that Ronan had, they enter the Kastulle Ruins to get to the other side of Ellia. While on the way to the surface, Elesis heard a mysterious voice calling for help, about a greater evil from a "land of the gods" that is aiming to invade the continents. They return to Bermesiah and fight off the monsters. The Chase take an airship from Kanavan to enter Xenia, the land of the Gods. Chapter 4: The Land of Gods The Grand Chase are on an airship to travel to Xenia. While arriving at Xenia, the only safe port lies at the borders, or through the gates of Violet and Red Forest. Eventually arriving at the Temple of Cuatal, or the location of the God of Cycles, Samsara, they are greeted by Vanessa, a servant of Samsara. They discover that the Ascendant God, Thanatos, was responsible for corrupting the other gods. Amy, who had been living in the Temple of Cuatal, joins the Chase. While crossing Valstrath, they witness Ercnard Sieghart, or as people had called him Sieghart, Elesis tries to ask Sieghart where Elscud disappeared to, but Sieghart ran off after Lass starts a duel with him. However, shortly after while continuing on, a mysterious knight ambushes them and tries to kill them with a meteor shower before being interrupted by Vanessa. The knight reveals to be Ashtaroth, a entity who "claims" to be the guardian of Thanatos. In his last ditch effort to kill the Chase, Ashtaroth summons Mynos and runs off. Arriving at the Wyrm's Maw, or the location of the God of Hellfire, Starklin, they find Sieghart. Sieghart, having calmed down claims that Elscud was taken away in a dimensional rift, the same kind of rift that Kaze'aze used to get away. Elesis cries in response, but felt comforted as if she could not lose hope on her ultimate quest; finding Elscud once and for all. After defeating Starklin, he reveals to be losing his own control of his own powers, rendering himself weaker in order to save himself. Continuing onto the Altar of Judgment, the location of the Goddess of Judgment, Yamini. They eventually catch her performing a ritual that would freeze the entire continent. After defeating her from the Ascendant God's spell, she apologizes and gives her the Orb of Judgment and directions to the God of Destruction. Climbing the Temple of Destruction, the location of the God of Destruction, Perseo, they continue on fighting through the monsters and eventually come across Mari, a mysterious girl who is capable of using machines. After a duel that started after Elesis insulted her, Mari decides to tag along. Perseo states that Lady Gaia, the Goddess of Life has fused herself with Rukkha as an attempt to ensure her own safety against Thanatos. Heading down to the Forest of Life to kill Rukkha and release Gaia from him, they then find out that they were too late to even kill him, they would've been fused forever, meaning that even if they kill Rukkha, they'd also ending up killing Gaia as well. The Grand Chase are given directions to the Ascendant God; the Fortress of Ascension. Finally heading to the Fortress of Ascension with all of the other orbs, the Chase aim to finish off the battle against Thanatos. After defeating Thanatos, Ashtaroth returns only to take the Orb of Ascendancy away from him and gets away to a secret fortress; Archimedia, as revealed by Mari. They take the airship to Archimedia, only to be blasted by Astaroth's defenses into a mysterious desert... Chapter 5: Deserts of Illusion Chapter 6: The Kingdom of Ascension Chapter 7: The Siege of Frost Chapter 8: The Stranger Chapter 9: The Prophecy Chapter 10: The Blood of Highlanders Chapter 11: Resurrection Gameplay Startup When first booting up the game, the title screen is Elesis looking over the kingdom of Serdin from a mountain. As noted, the panorama isn't drawn, but represented with actual 3D visuals. Then, after pressing L2+R2 as indicated, a sword brandishing sound is made and then you are greeted with the menu options. Upon starting a new playthrough, the first cutscene is consisted of the developers' logos, and then the prologue cutscene. After the prologue, you immediately begin the first stage, and you only start with Elesis, Lire, and Arme as playable characters, with Elesis being the character the player controls. After beating the first stage, you are then taken into a free-roam area which represents the Serdin kingdom, where the characters could explore around, look for secrets or talk to characters for side-quests. Overall The gameplay is an hack-n-slash character action RPG in a similar fashion to Ys VIII and Granblue Fantasy Relink. Stages are taken place in stages and support up to 4 player co-op. Players can assemble parties up to 4 different characters, as there are a total of 20 different characters in the game. There are a total of 11 chapters and each of them have 7-10 stages that are 11-25 minutes each with the exception of Chapter 6, which has a total of 15 stages to fill in additional plot material from the Event Dungeons and Hero Dungeons from the original Grand Chase. There are a total of 93 stages in the game, which if the player spends around 11-25 minutes to beat, it would take them roundly 28 hours to beat the game excluding cutscenes and transitions. There are around 8 hours of cutscenes in the game. Unlike most action role-playing games, there are both light attacks and heavy attacks. Light attacks are faster but do less damage. Heavy attacks are slower but do more damage. The game makes it unique as each character has unique abilities that can only be done with either light attacks or heavy attacks, such as holding it down for secondary attacks or charged attacks. These two types of attacks are done by pressing the Square and Triangle buttons, or it can be alternated to the Triangle/Circle buttons via using the Devil May Cry/Bayonetta-style control scheme. Characters can also dodge by the R2 button, which is represented by either flips, slides, or dashes. The framerate targetted in this game is a solid 60fps as this game is built with the Unity Engine and goes for an cel-shaded art-style similar in fashion of Granblue Fantasy, Breath of the Wild, and Rime. The cutscenes are also run on the gameplay at 60fps, with seamless transitions between cutscenes and action. The game runs at 720p 60fps on the Nintendo Switch docked/undocked, 1080p for both PS4/Xbox One, 1800p for PS4 Pro, and 2160p for Xbox One X. There is a max level of 100 in the game and each character has a skill tree where they could unlock new moves, tactics, abilities, etc. The damage output starts at 50 and increases to 500 at level 100 and a maximum damage cap of 9999. Each characters' skill tree has a total of 52 skills and three paths each but each skill costs varying amount of points (1/2/3). Each character can hold up to 4 skills which are performed by holding L1 and then pressing the designated face button. Upon using skills, players can charge up a Hyper Gauge which if filled lets the character utilize a Hyper attack. If multiple characters use their Hypers, there will be a Chain Burst first signaled by a Chain Chance, which will result in increased damage to a maximum of 100% "Full Chain" if all 4 of them use Hypers. The game starts off with only the three first characters, Elesis, Lire, and Arme, but as the player progresses through the game, more characters join the cause and become playable. Each character has a total of 11 different SP skills which are charged up by doing damage towards enemies, similar in fashion to Xenoblade 2 and Granblue Fantasy Relink. Players also have consumables which are used by the D-Pad. SP skills are unlocked through progressing through the skill tree and characters only start with 3. Every basic attack will regenerate 5-8 SP. The multiplayer component is where separate players take place of their own designated character, with the host having the other characters played by AI. Note that in multiplayer, players can vote whether to skip cutscenes via the Start+A input. Other players can also take control of characters that the host hasn't yet unlocked. For example, a co-op game with the host only at Chapter 3 can also have players taking control of Asin and Edel even if the host had not yet unlocked those characters yet. The game also supports cross-play across consoles, so players playing on a PS4 will be indicated with a PS4 icon, and players playing on a Switch will be indicated with a Switch icon. Before starting out into stages, players are put into a free-roam town where players could talk to NPCs for sidequests, information, or switch out their parties and switch out playable characters where the other 3 are played by an AI. There are also shops where players can buy consumable items such as healing items or Natal orbs (functions like the AED batteries in Astral Chain) When it comes to loot, players can equip a weapon augment, armor, and three accessories (necklace, anklet, ring) which give unique stats and boosts. There are also "elite" equips which give unique powers and mostly drop from bosses in dungeons at rare rates. For example, the elite necklace "Elena's Gift" gives the player a 10% chance of reducing the enemy's attack by 30% for 10 seconds while using basic attacks. When it comes to the free-roam areas, some of the areas are reused for the main stages except with cutscenes taking place inside of the buildings. Unlike most Japanese RPGs, dialogue is mostly done in 3D cutscenes face to face. Some cutscenes transition seamlessly into the gameplay such as camera pans, boss introductions, etc. As an real example, the first stage, Outer Wall of Serdin, is just outside the free-roam area of Serdin Kingdom, with a cutscene inside the palace in the beginning using the same graphics as the free-roam area. Unlike most games in this genre, each continent has it's own supermap with portions of it used in the stages. For example, stages that take place in Bermesiah will have its own dedicated portion without the rest of Bermesiah being cut off. In Serdin Kingdom, you can see the other areas in Bermesiah being rendered even from distances away. The Player Menu is represented with an equipment menu stating what is being equipped, a skill tree menu, milestones, and intel from in-game. Intel items, unlike other parts is spread across all characters, and they usually tell about lore within the universe of Grand Chase. How death works is that when you die, you go into a "Danger" status where other players must save you from dying. If the Danger gauge runs out, the player dies and is eliminated from the game. You only have 3 lives per stage and if those lives run out, its game over. Upon completing each stage, there is a fanfare and everyone strikes a victory pose and quote. As noted, experience points are not gained by fighting monsters, it is gained by completing the stages and main quests. When a character levels up, there is a quote for when they level up. Also, when it comes to replaying stages, you can replay stages up to 5 times before they are reduced to 10%, so players can't just farm EXP by playing the same stages over and over. There are four voice options to use for the gameplay; English, Japanese, Korean, or Brazilian Portuguese. The level cap that players will reach upon beating the game averages to level 50 and will have nearly half of the skill tree completely unlocked. To compensate for the absurdly high level cap, there are additional changes and interludes after the endgame, such as a secret boss and various other adventures. Note that the endgame challenges only go up to level 75 so the max level of 100 is mostly only for bragging rights. Characters Each character has their own fighting style, skill tree, and action skills. Note as stated above, the other 17 characters are locked and must be unlocked by playing through the story. Upon unlocking them after clearing a stage, there will be a message saying ''"New Chaser" alongside a fanfare with gameplay showing off the character's abilities. While playing through the story, the gameplay dialogue changes on who's in the party, though the storyline cutscenes stay the same. If you're playing in multiplayer, the fanfare is skipped. Note that these characters are listed by their actual order in Grand Chase, not by the exact order that they are unlocked. Elesis NOTE: Skill trees are subject to be moved to a dedicated subpage. A "null" means this slot is not used. Elesis focuses on melee combat and using her abilities to support her allies. She uses a sword to do light attacks and heavy attacks. Her special ability revolves around her Berserker ability, where if her health falls to 30%, she will go in a berserk mode for 15 seconds, raising her attack power, defense and attack speed by 30%. Lire Lire focuses on ranged combat and focusing on damaging larger targets. She uses regular melee attacks on light attacks, but holding the light/heavy attack button fires arrows. Arme Arme uses magic as her main weapon, with elements such as fire and ice. She uses the staff to do light attack and magical attacks to do heavy attacks. Holding the L1 button and using the D-Pad buttons lets Arme switch her main type of magic. She only has three types of magic; wind, fire, and ice. Lass Lass uses a nodachi and throwing kunai as ways of taking down his enemies. He uses his nodachi to do heavy attacks while using kunai to do light attacks. Holding the light attack button throws kunai. Ryan Ryan uses an axe as his weapon of choice and is capable of transforming into a superior being Guardian. His axe attacks are done by both light and heavy attacks, but if Ryan uses enough skills he fills up a shapeshift gauge where he transforms into a wolf to do more damage and override his action skills. Ronan Ronan uses a tyrfing to attack his enemies melee while also using the power of Erudon to take down his enemies. Light attacks are done by tyrfing slashes while heavy attacks utilize spell magic. Upon attacking enemies, he fills up a Erudon gauge which transforms his blade to extend its range. Amy Amy uses two chakrani as her weapon and utilizes dances to heal her allies. She does chakrani strikes with both light and heavy attacks, but if the buttons are held she gets to throw them back and forth towards enemies. Jin Jin uses fist-based combat and is capable of undergoing a flaming rage where his attacks become augmented. By using light and heavy attacks Jin does martial arts, but if holding down the L1 button and the up button on the D-Pad, Jin can charge up his Burning Gauge which increases his damage and changes his skills. Jin must charge for 3 seconds and the Burning Gauge only lasts 10 seconds. Sieghart Sieghart uses a Soluna sword and is capable of raging his way to victory with increased strength. Light and heavy attacks are done by using the Soluna blade. If the gauge is fully filled, Sieghart will rage for 15 seconds which increases his damage. It takes averagely 35 basic attacks to fully charge the Rage gauge. Mari Mari uses a grimoire and various machinary summons to become the mechanic of the battlefield. Light attacks are represented by grimoire swings while heavy attacks utilize machinary attacks. Dio Dio uses both Devil Force and Weapon Force weaponry to destroy his foes. Light attacks represent Weapon Force while heavy attacks represent Devil Force. His special ability revolves around the use of Force Marbles. Devil Force Marble increases his damage output by 30% for 10 seconds and can be charged by both attacks but the finishing attack must be Devil Force. Weapon Force marble reduces his SP costs by 20% for 10 seconds and requires Weapon Force combos to be the finishing attack. Each marble takes 30 combos to charge up. Zero Zero is capable of using either melee punches or either his heavy sword; the Grandark to smite his enemies. Light attacks are represented by punches while heavy attacks utilize his Grandark. By holding down L1 and inputting with the D-Pad, Zero can enter into an offensive stance or an defensive stance, which changes how he uses the Grandark. Ley Ley, while not a strong fighter, is capable of using summons and dark magic to conquer the battlefield. Light attacks are represented by Ultima strikes while heavy attacks are dark magic. By holding down L1 and then pressing with the D-Pad, Ley can summon Jeeves, Garoullie, or Haunt. Note that 1 summon will reduce her SP gain by 25%, 2 summons will reduce to 50%, and all 3 summons will halt SP gain entirely. Some of her SP skills require summons to be active before being able to use them. and because of this, she gains additional SP skill pads which are called by holding down L1+D-Pad in the direction on the summon, making her the only character to be able to use all 11 skills without having to switch them out. Note that if the summons die from taking too much damage, there will be a cooldown of 14 before resummoning. Their health regenerates while inactive. Rufus Rufus, the cunning bounty hunter utilizes a arsenal of hunting gear to mark his enemies for death. Light and heavy attacks are represented by punches and the Nether Blade, but if holding the buttons down, Rufus will initiate fire mode and use his Eyeteeth to shoot down enemies. By holding down L1 and using the D-Pad. Rufus can switch into the Soul Arbiter, a machine gun that takes some charging up and does constant streams of damage, or into the Rupture, a slow shotgun that does heavy damage and breaks guards. Rin Rin, the priestess of a far-away tribe is capable of using a fan as her weapon and unleashing the powers of darkness and light. Light attacks represent the Dawn element, while heavy attacks represent the Twilight element. Via using her regular attacks, Rin can use 100 SP and L1+D-Pad to transform into the Goddess, which has 2 skills based on Dawn and 2 based on Twilight. Note that the transformation only lasts 45 seconds and Rin loses all of her SP upon turning back to normal, and that using Goddess Skills does not charge the Hyper gauge and her SP gain is halved while in Goddess form. Asin Asin is capable of using fist-based combat like Jin and unleashing the power of water upon his enemies. Light attacks are based on his fists, while heavy attacks are based on his kicks, but charged attacks utilize water bursts. Unlike Jin, Asin focuses more on agility than strength, and flurries of punches and kicks at the end of either combo can be finished with L1 + D-Pad (arrows have varying choices) to unleash bursts of water which either stun, ignore guard, or send enemies up in the air. Asin has to build up a Water Gauge by using his SP skills, 1 point for any skill and Asin can only hold 4. Lime Lime, the saint from Great Roose, while not tough as other Chasers, can heal and defend her allies from enemies. Light attacks are her own holy magic attacks and heavy attacks are strikes with her hammer. By holding down L1 and using the D-Pad, Lime can activate up to 3 auras which will gain various buffs. Attack Aura gives 15% attack, Defense Aura gives 15% defense, and Agility Area gives 15% more attack speed. However, Lime can only activate 1 aura at a time and using an aura will halt SP gain unless a SP gain buff is used (such as Amy's buffs) Edel Edel, the Captain of Serdin, is capable of using both a rapier and a flintlock to double down on her enemies. Light and heavy attacks are done by the rapier, but if holding down the attack button Edel can fire the Flintlock. Via progressing through the Skill Tree, Edel can use 100 SP to enchant her rapier with "Sword of Glory", as used by the L1+D-Pad buttons. Sword of Glory lasts for 20 seconds but halves her SP gain. There are three elements; lightning, ice, and darkness. Veigas Veigas, the demon with the cube, is capable of using space weaponry to decimate his enemies from nowhere. Light attacks are done by swinging the cube, while heavy attacks are represented by space magic. Uno Uno, the incomplete Highlander, must rely on his own bloodlust to fight his way to victory. Light attacks and heavy attacks are done by both the katana, but heavy attacks use a Blood Gauge to debuff enemies to take damage over time, but if the Blood Gauge is empty, Uno takes damage alongside his attacks. By holding down the L1 button and using the D-Pad, Uno can be configured to use the Blood Gauge on his SP skills or not. Stages See here for now. Trivia *The Brazilian Portugese versions changes some characters' names to be on pair with the other Grand Chase games. **Ley - Rey **Rufus - Lupus **Rin - Lin **Asin - Azin **Lime - Holy *A teaser boxart was released on June 2020 for E3 2020 but the final boxart wasn't revealed until Gamescom, where the final trailer was announced. The teaser boxart is a panorama of the Aernas world, the world that Grand Chase takes place in. *Queens Serdin and Kanavan use the same appearance as they did for Grand Chase Dimensional Chaser and have the same voice actor. *KurtzPel was originally going to be KoG's first retail game, but switched over to a F2P early on in the concepts, making this KoG's first retail game and their first game for the home consoles. *The game actually follows the established timeline that KoG had done for Grand Chase, as shown by the fact that Lime joins the Grand Chase at Bermesiah, not at Archimedia as the original PC game had implied. Subpages *Grand Chase Chronicles/Stages *Grand Chase Chronicles/Equipment *Grand Chase Chronicles/Codex *Grand Chase Chronicles/Skills *Grand Chase Chronicles/Phonograph *Grand Chase Chronicles/Extras *Grand Chase Chronicles/Trailers *Grand Chase Chronicles/Crests Category:Action Role-Playing Games Category:Hack and Slash Games Category:Nintendo Switch Games Category:PlayStation 4 Games Category:Xbox One Games Category:Role-Playing Games Category:Rated T Games Category:Rated 12 Games Category:Rated C CERO Games Category:Rated M OFLC Games Category:SEGA Games